I was happy about the news that Jason Momoa (Stargate: Atlantis) had been cast as Conan in the new film by Marcus Nispel. He seems like he can act, and he’s got a look that will not only work for the part, but quickly differentiate this version from the Schwarzenegger original.

Now we’ve got a few pics of Momoa in costume and a handful of set images to give you an idea of what to expect from Conan.

Latino Review has these, but I think they come from a crew member’s Facebook page (which you may not be able to access) by way of Quiet Earth [Update: The photos actually come from OperationKino]. The set pictures are, for the most part, not terribly spectacular. They could probably be mistaken as being from Nispel’s earlier film Pathfinder, or just about any other sword and sandals film. As a result I haven’t posted many of them. But the one with the hanging cage is a lot more interesting than the rest. (OK, a couple others have nekkid women in them, but beyond that they’re not very interesting, so hit Quiet Earth for those.)

Too bad the pics of Momoa are so blurry — you can only get a partial idea of what the costume really looks like — and there’s no sense of his physical ability. We’ll need to see a teaser for that. In the meantime I expect some spirited discussion based on the costume as we see it here, and the simple fact that Momoa isn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sean Hood did a rewrite on the previous draft of the Conan script by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, which followed Conan as he took on a quest to avenge the slaughter of his people and his father.